Parents Heartbroken Over 'Shooter Drill' Nursery Rhyme At US Kindergarten
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Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Georgy Cohen
An elementary school rhyme has left social media users heartbroken after the tragic mass shooting at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas this week.
The rhyme, which was posted on Reddit, instructs children what to do in the event a mass shooter enters the building.
It says: "Lockdown, lockdown lock the door.
"Shut the lights off say no more.
"Go behind the desk and hide wait until it’s safe inside.
"Lockdown, lockdown it’s all done now it’s time to have fun!”
The picture was originally shared on Twitter in 2018 by parent Georgy Cohen when she visited her daughter’s school in Somerville, Massachusetts.
After the picture went viral, Somerville Mayor at the time Joseph Curtatone and Superintendent Mary Skipper told the Boston Globe that lockdown drills were a necessary aspect of the education system.
Their statement said: “Just like school fire drills, lockdown drills have sadly become a common practice in schools, and educators do everything they can to reduce students' anxiety and stress.”
As the nursery rhyme resurfaced on Reddit following the Robb Elementary School shooting, a teacher replied: “My favourite part of being an educator is trying to decide whether to save other people's kids or to save myself for my own kid. Exactly what I signed up for."
Another shocked social media user wrote: “This is f**ked up. With cracking noises, kids should run to the window, because it's fireworks. I can't believe how normalized mass shootings are. How common.”
A fourth said: “This breaks my heart.”
One person shared: “This is absolutely heartbreaking.”
Another wrote: “F**k is this depressing.”
People across the world have expressed their shock and sadness after an 18-year-old man entered an elementary school with a handgun, a AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and high-capacity magazines.
The victims include 19 children between the ages of seven and 10 and two adults, who died in the horrendous attack on Tuesday.
It is the 27th school shooting to have taken place in the US this year.
In the US, the FBI encourages those who are locked down in the event an active shooter enters a building, including students and teachers, to react by implementing the ‘Run. Hide. Fight’ protocol.
It is common for schools across the country to practice active shooter drills as often as fire drills, including in settings that care for children of nursery age.
President Joe Biden has called for new gun laws in response to the Uvalde shooting, which happened just over a week after a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
Biden said in response to the elementary school shooting: “The idea that an 18-year-old can walk into a store and buy weapons of war designed to kill, I think it’s wrong."
To support the families of the victims killed in the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, visit the GoFundMe’s central donation page here.
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